Pickin Sticks

In my current programming course, I'm finally learning about inheritance and other object oriented programming techniques. I've decided to put aside my Creature Caretaker project for now and work on a simpler game - a version of "Pickin Sticks", as suggested by Moosader. Pickin Sticks is often used as the "Hello, world" of game development, allowing the programmer to try out a new language (or a very first game) and try a little bit of most basic game elements.

In Pickin Sticks, you control a character who walks around the screen - you guessed it - picking up sticks. Optionally, scoring can be added, as well as different objects, power ups, mines, and who knows what else. A menu, title screen, and options could be added. But these are all best saved for later - to start out, pickin sticks is one of the most basic games you could make.

Currently, I've created a basic class diagram to plan out the structure of my program, and I've begun coding the set-up for the game. I will probably be using Moosader's graphics to start with, just to get things working, but I might practice some animation and make my own graphics later on.

Want to make your own version of Pickin Sticks? Check out Moosader's tutorial!

Inundated with Internships

Hey all!

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for a personal update in the life of Jiya! I'll keep it brief, since my life honestly isn't all that exciting at the moment. I've been keeping quite on top of my studies this term and am doing well in all of my courses. I've managed to still fit some game time in, mostly with some casual Steam games and mucking about on Minecraft with my friends from around the globe.

The only "unusual" thing I've had going the past few weeks is a pile of internship applications to finish. I'm trying to apply for one per day, as I *really* need a source of income this summer since I won't be receiving financial aid. (Note to anyone seeking a post-bacc degree - for some reason they think you have more money the second time around and won't give you as much in loans...). While I loved working for Mad Science last summer and playing the crazy scientist and teaching little kids about the wonders of the world, I only made about $500 dollars all summer. In order to comfortably pay bills, rent, and loan payments, I need to make $2,000 this summer. And I will probably kill myself if I have to work fast food ever again, so an internship is needed!

Not that financial reasons are my only motivation. I really learned a lot during my chemical engineering internships back during my previous degree. I want to get out there and experience what the software development industry is actually like, and get a feel for what kinds of things I want to focus on. I was very blessed to be able to see just a glimpse of that with the WoW-Pro addon, but I'd love to see how "real" businesses do it. I'm still astonished when I look back and think about how the addon project began and grew - we really invented our own software development process as we went, from the ground up. That's something to be really proud of, especially considering how amazingly well it turned out and what a broad audience we were able to reach with our accomplishments.

I realize I've meandered a bit away from the main point of this post, so I'll cut myself off for now. Thanks for reading!

I'm a dragon! Grrr!

I haven't done much art lately, so here's one of the sprites for my somewhat delayed game project:

But don't call him cute - he's tough!

These sprites are constructed at run time by the game, which combines different images for the tail, body, head, and wings, as well as primary and secondary color. An example of some dismembered sprites can be found on my last game project update. All of these images are done using the free photo editing software GIMP. I have a very basic guide to some GIMP techniques useful for guide writers over at WoW-Pro, if you are interested in learning a few tricks! I may create some sort of GIMP spriting tutorial in the future (yeah, like I need more projects).